Kitchen Essential

Omelette

The secrets of a successful omelette were recently revealed by a friend of ours who showed us a somewhat unconventional but foolproof technique.

Use three large eggs per omelette (never mind the cholesterol problem), a tablespoonful of milk and a small pinch of baking powder. Whisk until fluffy adding any seasoning just before cooking. Heat some butter in a pan and pour in the egg mixture. A moderate heat setting and a little patience will give you a good start. Cover the pan and leave the omelette to set. It normally takes 3-5 minutes depending on your stove, but keep checking it. Once most of the egg has set, place the omelette under a hot grill for about 30 seconds without removing it from the pan. This will set any runny egg at the top as well as brown the omelette. Then add cheese or any other topping of your choice before placing the omelette under the grill again. When sufficiently browned, fold it over and serve.

Rice

One of the cheapest ways to fill your stomach, rice can also be the perfect accompaniment to just about any meat or chicken dish. We always found it very tricky to cook rice, but doing the research for this taught us a few new methods we hope will also work for you. We reckon there’s a serious generation gap between our mothers and grandmothers and us. And it’s best noticeable when cooking rice. So if your mom tells you 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice and leave it to cook and it still burns, don’t feel bad! This never worked for us either.

White rice

Use a big enough saucepan — remember that rice expands when cooked. Use 500 ml (2 cups) water and 5 ml salt per 250 ml (1 cup) rice. Bring to the boil, stir with a fork, and reduce heat to simmer. Cover tightly. Simmer for 15 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. The rice should be soft but not mushy.

This is the traditional method of cooking rice. If, however, you have become fed up with having to scrape burnt rice from the bottom of you saucepan after you’ve tried this once or twice, feel free to use more water. You can drain away the excess water using a colander. Not quite as showy as the other method but it works.

For a foolproof method, if you don’t mind the extra stirring and fiddling, microwave your rice. Boil the water in a kettle. Place the same quantities as above in a microwaveable dish, cover with a lid and cook for 15-20 minutes on high, stirring every 5 minutes.

The others Rice

Basmati rice is easier to cook. Don’t ask why — it just is. The instructions on the packet tell you to place a cup of rice in a saucepan, add two cups of water and a pinch of salt, to bring it to the boil, turn down the heat and allow it to simmer “without stirring or peeping” for 15 minutes. You then remove the pan from the heat and leave it for 5 minutes, after which you can stir and peep to your heart’s delight — it will be fluffy and white.

Brown rice takes longer to cook, approximately 20-25 minutes. Apart from that, use the same method as for white rice.

An alternative to rice is couscous which is really easy to make and delicious to boot, albeit considerably more expensive. Follow the instructions on the packet.

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